Is There Any Defense Against Deepfakes?

Is There Any Defense Against Deepfakes?

Deepfakes have been all over the news for the past couple years. And they’re a major cybersecurity heading into the 2020 election — one with the potential to misinform voters and persuade them with fake news events.

Deepfakes leverage artificial intelligence to deceive. Their algorithms find and replace the subject of a photo or video so that a person appears to have done something they didn’t, or been somewhere they weren’t. For instance, the likeness of a politician might be superimposed on to an actor delivering a fictional speech. Some viewers might be duped into believing the politician actually made the statements in the speech.

Naturally, there is very real concern that this type of deception could interfere with how people vote this November.

The Fight Against Deepfakes

Facebook executives recently said they will take action against the spread of deepfakes by instituting a ban. Experts, however, have expressed skepticism about how much this policy will thwart the rise of misinformation campaigns, especially because it doesn’t cover all types of doctored images and videos.

On another track, a number of tech companies have begun research on methods and tools for identifying digitally altered content. However, the solutions are in their infancy. And even those that prove effective are unlikely to intervene until fake videos have already gone viral.

Consumers must stay alert to ensure they’re not seduced by altered videos. Lower-quality videos are easier to identify, but the technology is continuously improving. As soon as a weakness is identified, it’s updated with new, smarter techniques.

For now, the best you can do is remain aware that deepfake videos remain in circulation. Be careful about what content you trust online. Political videos from unknown or questionable news sources should be taken with a grain of salt. Video disseminated from established media sources is at least likelier to be authentic.

Lunarline’s technology isn’t designed to put a stop to deepfakes. That’s not what we do. But we can help businesses, organizations and individuals learn to navigate the internet wisely and safely. The Lunarline School of Cybersecurity offers online and in-person classes, as well as onsite training programs for organizations, so there are options for any schedule.